Hi.
I thought I could just comment on others' introductions but that seems not to work, well then, here I am.
RP started for me and my friends back in middle school as a bunch of kids who loved writing and making up stories but had no idea that RP'ing was a trade of its own. We started making up stories in our breaks and when that seemed not to be enough, we started writing them down. This led to the »misunderstanding« of teachers and principals thinking we were quiet kids who sat down and studied all the time. :D
With time our group got smaller until it was just my (ex-)best friend and I left and when our friendship ended, after 10 years of RPing, it felt suddenly like a storm in my head of all the characters trying to live their lives and knocking on my skull from the inside.
About five years ago another friend of mine introduced me to the German online plattform
Animexx with a separate forum made for
RPGs. (You can change the language to English.)
So I started up in some of the RPGs with »fanfiction« or »roman« (German for novel) style writing which required about the same level of engagement and posts like the advanced ones here. Yet the Mexx community is vastly dominated with teen girls of Anime and Manga fandom backgrounds which makes it hard (and not impossible) to find playing partners capable of dealing with more complicated situations in a non anime fashion and with a passion for writing and writing well.
Another major reason for me to have searched further was the language. Although both German and English are foreign languages to me, I have been writing in English for way longer a time that I have known how to write or speak in German. Most of what I write is also in English and since my studies leave me very little time to further my knowledge of writing in English I desperately need regular practice. (So please never hesitate to correct my mistakes should you spot one.)
Over the years I have had many different character types in various settings, normal mundane stories of humans in their cities, fantasy with mythical creatures, futuristical fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc. Very seldom I catagorize them in good and evil because I believe it is more a question of whether their interests collide with public interests, with that of the politicians, of the cleric etc. I have no problem with complicated characters or less favourite ones and what ever you do to my characters or think of them, it has nothing to do with my person, so I will take no offense. (This statement comes from my experience on Animexx, in case you wondered.)
But since I am also a person with some life experience there are some things I could not put up with. One example: benevolent regent, monarch etc. Should you have a fair and kind king who did not come to power because someone thought he made a fine puppet, please tell me in advance and I will refrain from joining you RP. Is there a good and fair (no problem with efficient) disciplinary system which should play the good side of your setting, please let me know. Anything truly holy in your story with zero tolerance of ever questioning it or criticisim? Tell me before I ever start a character draft. If you have magic as an explanation to everything without any logic backing up your magic, also please do let me know.
Do not get me wrong, I have no problem playing a fair king but then he will be either a coward or an idiot for being played like a marionett of someone else who needs this idiot to stand out because that is how the world and power work. I could also play a character believing in the holiness of whatever you have in your setting and letting no criticism but that does not mean the holiness deserves none. I love playing magic, magical beings etc but should my character make a fireball in his/her hand then I do think about how flames are super hot gases and how my character should be able to heat up the air around his/her hand to that level. It does not have to be real, but believable, it has to make sense and it has to have plus and minuses.
One last thing and that I have not yet enjoyed playing in settings from books, movies, TV-Series etc, so in general I prefer individually thought settings for each story.
I hope I will soon find something here and get started.
Cheers.